And it's back! Yes,
The Starlit Promise by Lucky Dreams
A Special Offer From Shutterfly! by Estee
Odd Jobs by GravityDefyingCoffeeMug
★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 0 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 1
The Starlit Promise by Lucky Dreams
OCs, Celestia and Nightmare Moon
Slice of Life; 3k words; Nov 2018; Everyone
A young star learns her father must aid in Nightmare Moon's escape...The show never explained "The stars will aid in her escape" from the S1 premiere, but that left the door open for talented writers such as Lucky Dreams to fill the gap. This fic is told from a star's POV, which is a wonderfully original take. It's not an AU, either: this is what's going on above the same Equestria we know. The story is packed with world-building I instantly wanted to know more about – for example, that all stars spend a time living on the ground disguised as ponies. (There are a notable number of canon ponies, from Moondancer to Comet Tail, named after night-sky features, you know...) It's also a simple but wonderfully observed tale about the tender relationship between a daughter and father. A beautiful story. ★★★★★
A Special Offer From Shutterfly! by Estee
OC, Mayor Mare and Mane Six
Comedy; 5k words; Oct 2016; Everyone
What, you've never heard of Shutterfly? The print shop owner who can print a picture on just about anything? There may be a reason for that. A really annoying reason.Shutterfly is a pink pony with a yellow mane. If that sounds familiar, there's a reason for that. This fic starts off as a fun comedy in which the aforementioned OC turns up in Ponyville and offers some amazing mostly free offers while both enchanting and antagonising most of the town. It doesn't stay like that, though, becoming increasingly a place for the author to let off steam, with ever-increasing amounts of meta. The self-awareness about how annoying the narrator's being is amusing in itself for a while, but it goes on in similar vein for a long time, and by the end I was well past ready for it to wrap up. There are also several apparent references to other Estee creations, but since I'm not familiar with said creations the references went over my head, which didn't help either. Possibly you just have to be in the right mood, in which case I'm not sure I was – so just a high two for me. ★★
Odd Jobs by GravityDefyingCoffeeMug
Derpy and Dr. Hooves
Comedy/Random/Slice of Life; 2k words; Mar 2019; Everyone
The Doctor finds something to do while Derpy is asleep.I'm really not sure what to make of this, which I suppose is a reasonable reaction to a fic with a [Random] tag! My favourite thing here was the way Dr. Hooves was portrayed: he's that blend of silly, unpredictable and scarily intelligent that you associate with the Doctor. Derpy spends most of her time asleep, so her role is largely to have a (not really satisfyingly explained) enormous collection of cosmetics by her bed. The author mentions that there are a number of little references in there; I caught several to various Doctors, one or two from Pony itself, as well as a seriously obscure Red Dwarf one. I'm sure I missed more, though. On the whole, this falls into the "decent tea-break fic" category. Nothing to make your eyes fly open, nothing to repel you either, just a mostly harmless bit of quiet fun. The upper end of the two-star bracket again. ★★
Next time on Ponyfic Roundup: stories reviewed should include ROBCakeran53's Dreaming with Ponies.
That rare five-star! Lucky Dreams really is the best. :D
ReplyDeleteNot his first five, either. Not sure who else has had more than one. Definitely Cold in Gardez and horizon. Would have to look the others up.
DeleteLD is a criminally underappreciated author!
Delete